The "revolving door" between the SEC and the finance sector may have helped delay attempts last...

The "revolving door" between the SEC and the finance sector may have helped delay attempts last year to reform the $2.6T money market fund industry, a report from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) says. "The close linkage between the regulators and the regulated can influence the culture, the values, and the mindset of the agency - not to mention its regulatory and enforcement policies," the report says.

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Well, yeah, the revolving door between every branch of government and type of bureaucratic or politician critter inhabiting it and the industries/organizations who come to them for tax loopholes and changes in regulatory language in exchange for campaign contributions and/or cushy jobs post-government employment. Which is why you need to get big government *out* of the picking winners and losers business. If you ever want this sort of thing to end, that is; if you actually want to go back to something at least vaguely resembling free market capitalism again instead of the crony capitalism we have now.

If you want to at least slow down the revolving door problem, hit 'em where they'll notice it - in their wallets - when they leave government for cushy, well-paying jobs with companies that they helped regulate while in government.

,,,and we wonder why the 'discipline' meted out by these regulatory outfits is never more than a slap on the wrist?

Hell, Goldman made billions on a scheme which brought the nation to its knees and then paid a paltry ('without admitting or denying guilt', of course) fine of $500mm--not even one quarter's worth of earnings.

You want to change behavior? You put the CEO in jail, fine the company one years earnings, and prohibit them from participating in any government business--that will catch shareholders attention and start to change corporate behaviors.

Of course, when the regulators come from/go to the corporations they regulate, well it is unlikely that the circus will change.

Then there is that issue of the members of the Senate Banking committee taking 'favors' (think Dodd and Mazillo) from the very Banks they are supposed to be regulating. Dodd 'retired' (with a pension and benefits on our nickel) and Mazillo got off scot free with the billions he scammed from the public--all while Dodd was supposed to be 'watching'!